... Mining causes drastic disturbances in landscape and soil properties, and reclamation can restore soil quality over time. Thus, assessing changes in properties of reclaimed mine soils is essential to understanding the effects of the reclamation techniques. This study was aimed at quantifying the effects of mining and reclamation processes on physical and chemical properties of reclaimed soils for t ...

... In the literature of visible and near infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (VNIR-DRS) for soil characterization, the effects of instruments and scanning environments on reflectance spectra and calibration models have not been well documented. To fill this knowledge gap, the goal of this study is to compare soil reflectance spectra and calibration models obtained with different spectrometers o ...

... Photography has been a welcome tool in documenting and conveying qualitative soil information. When coupled with image analysis software, the usefulness of digital cameras can be increased to advance the field of micropedology. The determination of a representative elementary area (REA) still remains a critical information need for soil scientists so that field measurements are independent of samp ...

... Mountainous soils usually contain a large number of rock fragments (particle diameter>2mm), which influence soil hydraulic and retention properties. Data characterizing the properties of these soils usually describe only the fine earth (particle diameter<2mm). To quantitatively describe soil water movement in stony soils, their most important characteristic, i.e., the effective saturated hydraulic ...

... Weak salt extracts can be used to assess the availability of trace metals for leaching and uptake by soil organisms and plants in soil. Before extraction, the International Organization for Standardization recommends to dry soils in an oven at a temperature of 40°C. Effects of soil oven-drying on different fractions of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and the effect thereof on total concentrations a ...

... Spatially constrained multivariate analysis methods (MULTISPATI-PCA) and classical principal component analysis are applied for the entire country of France to study the main soil characteristics of topsoil and to assess if their multivariate spatial pattern can provide insight on their extent and origin. The results of the MULTSPATI-PCA provided evidence of strong spatial structures attributed to ...

... Full-waveform inversions were applied to retrieve surface, two-layered and continuous soil moisture profiles from ground penetrating radar (GPR) data acquired in an 11-ha agricultural field situated in the loess belt area in central Belgium. The radar system consisted of a vector network analyzer combined with an off-ground horn antenna operating in the frequency range 200–2000MHz. The GPR system ...

... Soils contain an abundance of nano-size particles. Because of their tendency to aggregate and associate with organic colloids, however, soil nanoparticles are difficult to obtain and characterize. Here we report on a simple and rapid method of extracting mesoporous nanomaterials from the clay fraction of an Andisol with narrow size distribution. The clay and nanoclay were characterized by elementa ...

... We studied the biochemical and biophysical processes of carbon sequestration in an intensive agroforestry system on two soils (Feralsol â Luero; Arenosol â Teso) in W. Kenya to elucidate the mechanisms associated with long-term carbon storage. Specifically, we looked at a top-down model (macro-aggregates form around organic matter particles and micro-aggregates form within the macro-aggregates ...

... This study aimed to evaluate the role of different plant covers on brown soil profile development changing SOM stability in the epipedons. In particular, two brown soils (Eutric Cambisols), located in Monghidoro at the Italian Apennines, were analysed in order to test the hypothesis that plant cover affects the brown soil profile development under eutric qualifier changing SOM stability and soil p ...

... Severe soil and water loss has led to widespread land degradation of the Loess Plateau, China. During the past two decades, significant efforts have been made to revegetate degraded soil in the region. However, a better understanding of the ability of plants to promote soil microbial processes is important for successful revegetation. The current study was conducted at the Dunshan watershed on the ...